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Natural disasters across Việt Nam have claimed 238 lives or left people missing, injured 367 others, and damaged or unroofed nearly 258,000 houses since the beginning of the year, according to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Nguyễn Hoàng Hiệp. He revealed the figures during a government meeting on Thursday that focused on urgent recovery efforts following Typhoon Matmo one of the most destructive storms to hit the country in recent years. More than 555,000 hectares of rice fields, crops, and plantations have been inundated since January, bringing total estimated damages to VNĐ33.549 trillion (approximately US$1.4 billion). Typhoon Matmo and its aftermath alone left 15 people dead or missing and seven injured as of Thursday morning. The storm’s heavy rains and floods su...

Kolkata – Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will on Sunday travel again to north Bengal to oversee ongoing relief and rehabilitation operations in areas devastated by recent landslides and floods, officials said. Since October 4, at least 32 people have lost their lives and thousands have been rendered homeless after heavy rainfall triggered landslides and flash floods across the northern districts of West Bengal. Banerjee, who had earlier spent four days in the region from October 5 to monitor rescue and relief efforts, is returning to personally assess the situation and expedite assistance for affected families. According to officials, the Chief Minister will first visit Hasimara in Alipurduar district, where she will chair a high-level administrative meeting to review relief measu...

Patna – Bihar, a state long familiar with the fury of floods, lightning, droughts, heatwaves, cold spells, and earthquakes, is observing this year’s International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction with renewed urgency. The global theme, “Fund resilience, not disasters,” holds special relevance for Bihar, where natural calamities strike with devastating frequency and intensity. According to a report by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), India recorded 321 major catastrophic events over the past two decades, resulting in around 80,000 deaths a large number of them in Bihar. The country also suffered an estimated economic loss of USD 80 billion during this period. In Bihar alone, hundreds of lives are lost every year to natural disasters. Climate change, unplan...

Pretoria- In a major stride toward ocean sustainability, South Africa has unveiled its first harbour-based net recycling facility at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. The initiative, led by the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dr Dion George, aims to tackle marine pollution while strengthening the nation’s blue economy. The new “micro-recycling pod,” installed at Collier Jetty, can process up to 100 kilograms of used fishing nets per hour. These discarded nets are shredded, washed, and transformed into clean plastic flakes that can be reused in industries ranging from packaging and textiles to automotive manufacturing. By recycling end-of-life and abandoned “ghost” fishing gear, the facility reduces plastic waste and helps protect marine life from entanglement. ...

Cape Town– In a major stride toward global disaster preparedness, G20 ministers have endorsed a declaration committing to people-centred, multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS). The statement, adopted during the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Risk Reduction under South Africa’s Presidency, coincided with the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, themed “Fund Resilience, Not Disasters.” The declaration, welcomed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), calls for stronger investment, international cooperation, and the empowerment of National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) as key players in issuing reliable forecasts. It stresses that early warning systems must be inclusive, accessible, and backed by sustainable funding to protect vulnerable commu...

This World Mental Health Day, observed on October 10, brings attention to a crucial yet often overlooked issue the mental toll of disasters. Whether it’s floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, or heatwaves, natural calamities don’t just destroy homes and livelihoods; they deeply affect emotional well-being, triggering anxiety, stress, depression, and long-term trauma. This year’s theme highlights the importance of mental health during humanitarian emergencies, calling for stronger preparedness and resilience-building before disaster strikes. Communities worldwide are now adopting creative and compassionate strategies to strengthen mental resilience. From meditative workshops in Puerto Rico to national frameworks in Australia, these initiatives prove that prioritising mental health in disaster...

Kolkata, October 13 – The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has officially declared the complete withdrawal of the southwest monsoon from West Bengal, signalling the start of drier conditions across the state. According to the IMD, mainly dry weather is expected over the next week as skies begin to clear. The monsoon withdrawal line currently passes through Karwar, Kalburgi, Nizamabad, Kanker, Keonjhargarh, Sagar Island, and Guwahati, marking a significant shift in the season’s weather patterns. In Kolkata, no rainfall was recorded in the 24-hour period ending at 8:30 a.m. on Monday. The city’s maximum temperature stood at 31 degrees Celsius, while the minimum settled at 24 degrees, both normal for this period. The IMD forecast suggests partly cloudy skies until Tuesday morning, ...

Bangkok, October 13 – The year 2024 was officially the hottest ever recorded, and nowhere did its impacts hit harder than in Asia and the Pacific. Temperatures soared to 53°C in parts of South and Southeast Asia, while between December 2024 and February 2025, six of the eleven global cities enduring extreme heat for over a month were in this region. Experts warn that this is not an isolated phenomenon, but a glimpse of a rapidly intensifying future driven by the global climate crisis. The record-breaking heat has underscored a grim reality: the climate crisis is also a health crisis. Cities across Asia and the Pacific home to hundreds of millions are increasingly battling extreme heat, worsening air pollution, and the spread of climate-sensitive diseases like dengue and malaria. These g...

Florida — The massive destruction left behind by Hurricane Ian has reignited debate among scientists and meteorologists about whether the decades-old Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale still captures the full danger of modern hurricanes. As climate change drives stronger and more unpredictable storms, experts like Zachary Handlos, director of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Georgia Tech, say it may be time to add a new, complementary system that better communicates the wide range of hurricane hazards not just wind speeds. Developed in 1969 by civil engineer Herbert Saffir and meteorologist Robert Simpson, the five-category scale remains the world’s most familiar hurricane measure. It classifies storms solely by sustained wind speed, ranging from Category 1 (least severe) to Cate...

As climate-induced disasters grow more frequent and intense, experts are urging humanitarian actors to adopt locally driven protection strategies that integrate digital innovation with traditional community knowledge. New research suggests that programmes aligned with local governance structures achieve far better outcomes than those implemented independently, as integration with existing decision-making systems ensures greater participation, trust, and sustainability. Evidence shows that the most effective early-warning systems evolve continuously through community feedback and operational learning. Static, fixed technologies often fail to address changing needs, while adaptive systems that let communities adjust alert thresholds, add new data, and modify communication methods perform ...